The Smoking Gun ran an article about a
Connecticut man who hacked Gene Simmons’ website because of public comments he
made about illegal file sharing. In
October of 2010 Kevin George Poe participated in a denial of service attack
against Mr. Simmons’ website, www.genesimmons.com.
This apparently was because Gene called on entertainment
figures to “sue everybody, take their houses, their cars. The music industry
was asleep at the wheel and didn't have the balls to sue every freckle-faced
kid who downloaded tracks.” ("Connecticut
man facing," 2011)
I found interest in this article because I’ve been a bit of
a Kiss fan since high school, and I’ve been following the career of Gene
Simmons lately as an example of an entrepreneurship and marketing guru. I’m also keenly interested in the whole file-sharing-is-bad-how-are-we-going-to-make-money
side of the music business these days.
I think Gene is a bit over the top with his comments, but
that’s his job. It’s what he does
best. And I’m afraid I have to agree
with his sentiments. Having said that,
he’s not doing himself or the cause any favors (see Lars
Ulrich/Metallica). Suing your customers
has proven to be a bad business model.
An inspired artist works very hard and spends many hours on
his craft. He/she is no less a
journeyman professional than the carpenter or electrician, but seems to be
worth much less in the current economy.
Art has to be worth something. To have someone “steal” it and pass it around
to all his friends for free can be a bit disheartening.
Something must be done, but it remains one of those
unanswered questions. We have to find a
way to fairly compensate our artists or there will be no more new art! Where’s
the motivation? If you don’t want to
pay for my product then I will simply keep my songs to myself. I’ll give them as gifts or something. Go make your own music if you don’t like it. Everyone else is. Too bad most of it isn’t very good. You’ll be back when you are ready. Then I’ll simply charge more.
References
Connecticut man
facing 15 years in prison over gene simmons web site attack. (2011, December 13). Retrieved from http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/gene-simmons-ddos-arrest-987612
Hey Eddie - great post! I've been wresting with this issue as well for the past several years. My conclusion is that file sharing is a double-edged sword. For the unknown artist, it is the new radio. For the superstars, it eats into their revenue. Frankly, I would love for people to want my music so badly that they would find it and download it for free.
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